Girl Dad, Husband, Serial Entrepreneur, Investor. | Built a nationwide vending business while working a W-2 | Helping others do the same.
Oregon, USA
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I've been on X since 2022.
I've never properly introduced myself.
I'm Mike, 36, from Eugene, Oregon.
Here's the short version of how I got here.
2012: Strength coach for a college football program back in the Midwest.
60 hours a week, $1,200 a month.
Bought my first rental anyway with my Emergency Fund: a $70K Midwest house, $14K down, $280/month in cash flow.
2014: Took a sales role at a Bay Area health tech startup. $60K all-in salary. Living below the Palo Alto poverty line.
Three weeks a month on the road implementing tech with NFL teams, special ops units, rugby programs.
Living out of a carry-on.
2020: Wife pregnant.
11pm in Denver airport, buying a $4 bottle of water out of the vending machine
I knew the owner paid $0.25 for it.
He made the sale while sleeping at home while I was dealing with flight delays while chasing a quota.
That gap bothered me more than the price of the water.
2021: Placed my first AI-vending machine at an apartment complex that had turned away every traditional operator.
Built it on the side, kept my W-2.
2022: Left the W2 job. 18 months after starting, not before.
I also bought a used machine that died at month six and paid for it twice.
Lost money on Bitcoin Mining. Amazon FBA, Meta Drop Shipping
Tried to figure it out Vending alone for way too long before building a community of help.
Now: National AI-Vending Company with over 10,000 machines in the wild. Me personally, have over 300+ machines myself, $100K+ profit per month, run by hired operators and systems.
Built the VendHub platform to help vending operators find leads, operationalize their route, and make ad revenue off their screens.
We have an Airbnb investment close enough so we can use it when we want.
Other alternative investments we've had success with outside of real estate and vending include our Amazon eBooks and land flipping, most recent one with a 270K capital gain after 18 months.
The calendar is mostly empty these days. Only filled with things I want to do.
Dinner's at home with my family.
I'm not here to sell you on quitting your job.
My whole point is the opposite: Entrepreneurship is hard. You're not alone. Also, don't quit your job.
The W-2 funds the side project until the side project can replace it.
I was a performance coach who spent a decade training elite athletes.
Then I trained my money to work the same way, so my time could belong to me and my family.
That's what I write about now: building ownership that buys back time, not just income.
Vending is an unsexy, low-capital place to start. That's why I love it. KISS
That's exactly why it works for people with a full-time job and no extra Saturdays.
If you're a W-2 worker, especially a parent, who's starting to feel how fragile a single paycheck is, I'd like to hear where you're at.
MH
PS - Being a Girl Dad of 3 girls 5 & under is the best 😎
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Most business plans start with a revenue goal. The best ones start with a dinner table.
Around 2020, my wife was pregnant and I was still traveling for work. That's when my question changed. Not "how much can I make?" but "what gets me home?"
Money matters. It pays for help, systems and time. But it's the tool, not the goal.
Start with the life you want, then work backward to the business.
What time do you want to be home by? 👇
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A Vendingpreneur is selling his route for $600,000.
Here’s how a vending route actually gets valued.
The rule of thumb: routes typically sell for about 1 to 1.5 times their yearly revenue.
Example: a route doing $12,000 a month ($144,000 a year) would go for roughly $144,000 to $216,000.
What gets you the higher number:
Clean books. Every month of sales, profit, and costs documented.
An efficient route. Tight stops, good margins.
Room to grow in that market.
Here’s the part that matters: you can’t sell your job. Nobody pays you a multiple of your paycheck when you leave.
A route is an asset. Built one location at a time, it becomes something you own. And something you can sell.
Where do you find routes? There’s a ton of routes listed for sale at vendhubhq.com.
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They took their car in for repairs and started talking vending with the general manager.
That conversation led to an installed machine. Other managers saw it, and the member later reported approval for three more centers, with two still under review.
Your first location conversation could begin at a business you already visit. Start noticing where people spend their day and what they do when they need a drink or something to eat.
You can begin investigating local opportunities before you own a machine.
DM “MARKET” to book a call with my team. We’ll analyze your area, discuss your goals and build a plan for finding and approaching potential locations near you.
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Mike Hoffmann retweeted
Friday Wins: A Vendingpreneur added 10 machines in 2 months and still raised what each one makes.
Adding that many machines that fast is hard enough. He also made each one better.
Between Feb 19 and Apr 22, he installed 10 new units. Over the same stretch, his average sales per machine went from about $3,000 a month to $3,771.
Two things made the difference:
He fixed the product mix. He pulled what wasn’t moving and doubled down on what was.
He invested in service. His team gives a free snack or drink at every refill. It paid off: a property manager who moved to a new building called him to install there too.
That’s the kind of growth I like to see. Every new location gets better, not just bigger.
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Here's a simple test I use on any business. I call it the Vacation Test.
Picture yourself gone for a week. No calls. No texts. What happens?
If it keeps running, you own a business.
If it falls apart, you own a job. Even if it pays well.
That's not a knock on starting out. Every business starts with the owner doing everything. The work is replacing yourself one piece at a time: write down what you do, hand off what repeats, then hire.
Would your business pass? Be honest. 👇
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How to build a vending business with your kids, at every age:
Little kids: taste testers. They pick one new snack, and the machine tells you if it sells.
Early grade school: counting, checking, and spotting what’s almost empty.
Older kids: restocking and cleaning the glass.
Teens: running the weekly sales report and picking what to swap.
One of our members has a four-year-old who helps pick inventory at night. Her five-year-old’s proudest moment? Helping mommy and daddy with their business.
You can’t hand your kids your job. You can hand them something you built. 🤝
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One city agreement for seven machines.
This member shared the first two installations and reported a route of 31 machines overall.
If you’re looking at that route and wondering where you’d begin, make your first goal concrete: one suitable location, a clear agreement and a service plan you can handle.
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1 in 9 American adults are on a GLP-1.
That’s changing what people buy from a vending machine.
People on these drugs eat less, so every bite has to count. More protein. Smaller portions. More water.
Here’s what I’d stock now, and what each one makes:
Fairlife protein shakes: costs a little over $2, sells for $5. About $3 a bottle.
Gym protein (on Anthony’s route): $3.76 → $7.99
Premium water (on Anthony’s route): $1.39 → $5.99
Sparkling water in glass: about 70¢ → $4
Next up to test: meat sticks and jerky, protein bars, single-serve nuts, Greek yogurt and cheese sticks, and electrolyte drinks.
The rule: test new items in one slot, not a whole row. Let the machine tell you what that location wants.
Food companies are already printing “GLP-1 friendly” on their labels. The machines that adjust first win the break room.
Not medical advice. Just what I’d put in the machine.
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Reply: The 7 products that sell out no matter what, with what they make: piped.video/watch?v=i921Olnm…
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Would you have put a regional airport on your vending-location list?
One of our members shared three additional machines up and running at a regional airport.
Your first win could be a suitable location close to home, serving people who need a convenient place to buy a drink or a snack.
The next step is to investigate which businesses around you could have that need and which you could reliably look after.
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The Doritos sold. The Ruffles sat. They came in the same variety pack.
I was looking at the price per bag. I should have been looking at what my customers actually bought.
The slower flavors piled up, then expired. One month, spoilage cost me $280.
Before you buy another variety pack, check:
- How many of each flavor are inside?
- Can you reorder the popular ones separately?
- What are the minimum order and delivery costs?
A lower price per bag doesn’t help if you’re paying for stock you can’t sell.
Learning Vending the Hard Way · Episode 2
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Monday delivery!
Everytime our @VendhubAI delivery comes I always think back to 2022 when we would block off 6 hrs on Wednesday to hit up @Costco @USFoods and others.
Wtf were we doing 😂🤷♂️
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